Tweedle-dee

English

Etymology

The names "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee" first appeared in print in one of John Byrom's epigrams, which satirised the disagreements between Handel and Bononcini. They were made popular by Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.

Proper noun

Tweedle-dee

1. A fictional little fat man who is the twin brother of Tweedle-dum and appears in multiple artistic works, including certain nursery rhymes and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.

Translations

fictional character

• Finnish: Tittelityy
• Polish: Dyludyludi m
• Russian: Тра-ля-ля m (Tra-lja-lja)

Noun

Tweedle-dee (plural Tweedle-dees)

1. One of a pair (the other of the pair being Tweedle-dum) of nominally different (often: but practically identical) things.
   • 1773, “Epigram on the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini”, in Miscellaneous Poems, Manchester: J. Harrop, pp 343–44:

     Some ſay, compar’d to Bononcini, / That Mynheer Handel’s but a Ninny; / Others aver, that he to Handel / Is ſcarcely fit to hold a Candle: / Strange all this Difference ſhould be, / ’Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!

   • 1907, The Medical world, volume 25, page 216:

     How can we get the tweedle-dums and the tweedle-dees together for united action in the interests of the masses of the people?

   • 1989, Jon Barwise, The Situation in Logic, page 189:

     Suppose we have any axiom of the form: (2) For every Tweedledee there is a Tweedledum R-related to it. Axioms of the form (2) cut two ways. They can be construed as putting a limit on the Tweedledees: only those exist for which there is an R-related Tweedledum. On the other hand, they can be seen as postulating the existence of a rich collection of Tweedledums. There are so many of them that there is at least one R-related to every single Tweedledee.

   • 1999, Katherine Paterson, The king's equal, page 13:

     "She can't tell a Tweedle-dum from a Tweedle-dee."